Thursday, June 12, 2014

This will forever be known as the "Flamingo" shirt! LOL I had to have hubby stop by the fabric store to buy thread to match and he brought me home a spool of "Flamingo" of which the clerk gave him a deal on - I guess I need to send him on my fabric store errands more often LOL

Ottobre 2/2006 #4 Sleeveless blouse - size Eu. 46 with alterations to the front darts after this picture was taken. I did redraft the darts on the traced pattern for next time too. Lowered 'em just a bit.

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Deer & Doe has a free t-shirt pattern called Plantain and
I downloaded it. This purple and white stripe is my first attempt with
it. I sewed the biggest size with 1/4 inch seam allowance rather than
5/8 as called for. I'll probably make a couple more for summer tops -

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

I tried to get fancy and do heavy yellow top stitching. It worked, kinda. The fly top stitching got kinda screwed up but hey for the first time the bar tack to hold the fly shield in place worked perfect! You win some, you loose some. I could have picked out the fly top stitching but it was done with a double stitch top stitch and it would have been a bugger to pull out. His shirt will cover it (he rarely tucks it in) and he'll out grow them faster than it would have taken me to pick it out!!!

Ottobre 1/2013 #19 Relaxed Cotton Pants Size 134 - with one inch removed from the length. Should have done the size 128 with one inch added to the length because they are too big in the waist. Too bad he'll wear out the knees before he gains enough weight to fill them out!

How is it that one can buy two pieces of fabric from the same store at the same time on bolts that are sitting in the same section and have such different quality of fabric?!??!

The first one out of the green/blue was divine to work with. This one... not so much. It was thinner, it almost seemed to pill as I worked with it. The bias for the pocket and yoke were SO stretchy that it was ridiculous.

But it's done, and it fits, and it'll last through this season anyway.

Ottobre 6/2013 #17 "Forest" with collar and cuffs - size 128 with 1/4 inch seam allowances. Next time go back to 1cm or 1/2 inch seam allowances! 1/4 inch was too small to work with on this!!

I whipped up these two sleep shirts for a couple little friends from our church. My children have been invited to a birthday party for the two of them so I sewed up these sleep shirts and my daughter is whipping up a couple pairs of slippers to match.

The pink one is a size large from the Kwik Sew Children's book and the purple is a medium.

Hopefully their mother doesn't visit my blog and they see them by mistake before next Tuesday LOL

I'll try to remember to add the picture of the slippers when they're done.

Friday, February 28, 2014

I still want to do another denim skirt and a pair of jeans for myself but I needed to take a break on my stuff once again to sew for my weeds once again!

It fits well

When they get down to only one or two shirts that are nice for church it's time to get sewing for them. So I whipped up another #17 "Forest" from 6/2013 with the alternative collar and cuffs rather than the hood. This pattern only goes to size 134 so I have to sew it while I can!

Being a goof

For Big Little Man I sewed it in a blue & green plaid that I picked up at Joann's. I made no alterations and it fits lovely and might even fit little brother in the fall?!!? Hey, if I can get two seasons out of a garment for these critters I'm happy - even if the only way to have it happen is two different critters LOL

Then today I traced a size 128 for Littlest Man - his will be from a black & white plaid flannel purchased at the same time. Hopefully I'll be back blogging about this one by the end of the weekend.....

Thursday, February 13, 2014

I needed some tops to wear with anything - dressy or casual. My friend (thanks ~M!) gifted me with a fabric.com gift certificate for my birthday with the stipulation that it had to be used for something for me. I tried some Organic Cotton Jersey for the first time. It's SO soft!!!!

This cream one is a bit thin, which is disappointing. But I'll figure out how to wear it under something.

The dark dark brown one turned out beautiful - it's my favorite!!

Black one from fabric stash

back view of black one

This third and final one for this week is from black knit (looks brown in the photo, dumb camera) that I had in my stash. I'm not happy with the neck binding because there is not much stretch to this knit. Hopefully it'll soften up and be okay with a couple washings. The necks on the brown and cream soft organic ones lay much nicer!! But... I had the black one on today as I was blogging :-)

Maybe I'll update the photos of the hanger ones above as I wear them in the coming days. Or maybe I won't - I always seem to forget.

Monday, February 3, 2014

After many years my hubby said he'd buy me a cover stitch machine! I was ecstatic! While I was researching and waiting for the funds, I started playing with my current serger. While it's not designed to be a true cover stitch machine it has the ability to do a cover lock stitch. I had fun playing with it with this outfit. It's not perfect but not bad for my first attempt. The money had to go to buy us a new family vehicle so it's a good thing that I figured out that my current serger has fun capabilities.... maybe a real cover stitch machine will be in my future some day.... that is if the cars ever behave themselves. :-(

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

A simple "no pattern" cut squares turned into a gathered skirt. They are simple but so far she still likes the "prairie" look of them! I like simple!!

Two rectangles 36" wide by 30" long. Stitch them together at the sides. Finish the bottom and turn up a 1" hem. Finish the top edge and turn in 1 1/4 inches for an elastic casing. Cut 22" of elastic inserted into casing. Overlap the elastic by 1" and close up the casing.

I think there is a lot of fabric gathered at the waist and it would bug me but she seems not to mind!

Catching up today.... I've been sewing a bit but not blogging stuff. I'd rather be sewing LOL

I always find it amazing that my children walk up to the fabric stash, pull something out, and say, "Mom can this be a ..... for me?" He wanted pants but I talked him into a shirt. The pattern is designed for flannel and that's on the docket soon. The denim is a bit stiff and makes it a bit jacket like. It is also a bit big but a mom has to keep ahead some how right?

Ottobre 6/2013 #17 "Forest" again. But for a different child. This time with a hood and ribbed cuffs. I did use the same size body - 134 as the boys are so close in size now-a-days. It's a bit big but not too big that it would have been worth my time to retrace a different size. Fabric was a freebie striped light weight denim from a friend.

It looks okay I guess but I think it'll be better out of a flannel. We shall see...

Ottobre Winter 6/2013 - #17 "Forest" size 134 with collar and cuffs substituted for hood and ribbed cuffs. Used black pearl snaps to make it look a bit western but the fabric was so thin it didn't really turn out the way I envisioned. It fits and he can wear a t-shirt under it for the winter and it'll be a light cool shirt to wear into the spring by itself. Gotta roll with the punches and work with what you have sometimes!

An unplanned benefit is that they make a perfect complete outfit with the newest corduroy pants that I recently sewed!! Gotta love when things coordinate well!